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cell encapsulation methods described here. Although these whole-cell biosen-
sors provide one of the practical successes of molecular-scale devices, these
devices use only a small portion of the full functionality of the cells. Accessing
a greater portion of this functionality requires a more comprehensive coupling
to the informational machinery of the cells. We have shown that arrays of
carbon nanofiber elements may be functionally integrated within cells that re-
main viable after VACNF insertion. This successful integration provides an
intracellular biochemical interface that is a critical enabling step both as a po-
tential communication pathway between the synthetic and biological substrates
in hybrid devices and in the realization of hardware tools that couple modeling
and experiment in genetic circuit and network exploration and design. At this
time, the exploration of such interfaces between engineered nanostructures and
biomolecular processes of cells is in its infancy. However, since this coupling
of nanotechnology and biotechnology holds such great promise, there is likely
to be significant near-term progress in this area. For example, the functioning
of the hybrid combination of cell and VACNFs was demonstrated by long-term
gene expression from nanofiber-bound plasmid molecules, indicating that other
functional properties of VACNFs can be used during intracellular deployment
without affecting cell viability. Perhaps previously demonstrated VACNF elec-
trochemical probes [25] could be deployed within cells, or electronically or
heat-mediated methods for binding or releasing the active coding regions of the
delivered plasmid to the nanofiber could provide specific temporal control of
gene expression. In any event, as nanoscale science, engineering, and technol-
ogy continue to push synthetic devices down to the molecular scale, our ability
to interject these devices into the flow of information within cells will grow.
And, as our ability to connect to these cellular information pathways grows, so
to does our ability to harness this functionality for engineered devices.
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